Do you feel like Madison is safer today than 10 years ago?

Honey, I shrunk the jail

What have we been saying? The Blaska Policy Werkes bucked the Derail the Jail crowd last fall to support a more humane Dane County jail, one that offered mental health and AODA treatment. But we argued that they weren’t building it big enough.

Teddy Shibabaw of Socialist Alternative is driving county jail policy

The new and improved jail, to be built for $76 million atop the current Public Safety Building on Doty Street, will be smaller by 91 inmate beds than the current jail capacity, which is spread out over three locations. We testified before the County Board that Dane County is projected to add 75,000 residents in the next 22 years. That’s the state Department of Administration’s numbers, not ours. Dane County is the most rapidly growing county in the state but its jail is shrinking? Shots fired and car jackings are up but shrink the jail?

So kudos to Chris Rickert and the Wisconsin State Journal for committing some real journalism this week. Would that it had done so last fall when the jail was being considered but, given the liberal-progressive-socialists inhabiting the city-county building, doubtful it would have done any good. This is the money quote from that article (please pass the Maalox):

Now begins what is essentially an open-ended experiment to determine whether programs aimed at keeping people out of jail can be successful enough to even further lower — or at least not increase — the number of inmates in a county that already has lower-than-average jail-incarceration rates.

An “EXPERIMENT!” (Yes, we are shouting.) Dane County is already incarcerating lawbreakers at lower than average rates — lower than Milwaukee County, lower than the state as a whole, lower than the national average. By a long shot.

Dane County jails offenders at half the rate of Milwaukee County and only 60% of the nation as a whole.

How low can we go? How low DARE we go?

Buy your Tums by the caseload because here comes another dose of heartburn:

“There is no question that additional reform of the entire justice system will be needed to ensure that the smaller facility will be adequate,” says the chairman of the county’s law enforcement oversight committee. “The entire justice system” must be “REFORMED!”

“I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I was concerned,” says the sheriff.

Blaska would be lying to you if he said HE wasn’t concerned!

Dane County already has 28 — twenty-eight — programs to divert lawbreakers from doing jail time. Restorative justice, job training, community involvement, and (of course) ankle bracelets. Did not know the court system ran its own electronic monitoring — 130 offenders with beepers on their legs — in addition to 95 more the sheriff controls.

But that is not enough for the social justice warriors. Committing an offender to jail — a jail that will offer employment readiness training, mental health counseling, alcohol and drug abuse treatment, and medical services — isn’t that a good thing?

I’ll ask again, would Tony Terrell Robinson Jr. been alive today if he had spent a year in such a secure treatment facility?

The racial equity lens

Your Humble Bloggeur asked Sheriff Dave Mahoney why he had not sounded the alarm before the county adopted its jail budget last November.

Dave told me, “That quote and story does not tell the whole story of what was said.”

Sheriff Mahoney

I’m concerned that without the engagement of everyone in the criminal justice system doing their part, starting with arrest decisions and ending with sentences the 91-bed reduction could be a challenge but as was said in the story, our predictions based on patterns in incarceration should allow the 91 bed reduction for the next 5 to 15 years. Today [02-05-18] we are 123 beds below the 80% capacity of the jail. If everyone who has gone on record in support of diversion programs continues to support these programs we will be fine.

But head count on the night of December 11-12 was 914, according to Rickert. The new and improved jail will reduce capacity from 1,013 to 922. Not a lot of wiggle room. Understand that the Dane County Board told the Mead & Hunt consultants from the get-go, specifically NOT to plan more capacity.

Blaska expressed the hope that the county would adopt what jail consultants Mead & Hunt call Phase 2, which would bring the new jail to current capacity.

“That’s not going to happen,” Sheriff Mahoney responded.

Given the make-up of this county board and that only five of the 37 seats are being contested, he is undoubtedly correct. To recycle Donald Rumsfeld, you work with the county board you’ve got, not the one you wish you had.

4 Responses to Let’s experiment with public safety

Keeping them out of jail should not be the objective of the policy. Keeping them from committing more crimes should be the overriding objective, and it should trump all others. And believe it or not, keeping them incarcerated is one of the most effective ways to accomplish that. I don’t want to “punish” these criminals any more than Al Matano does, but I see a value in keeping them off the streets that he apparently does not.

I think it is a mistake to interpret this as an experiment in public safety. This assumes the goal of these policies is public safety, it’s not. The goal of these policies is social justice and is rooted in the assumption that criminals are the victims and society at large are the victimizers. This philosophy serves up a nice self-licking ice cream cone to the lefties. No one wants to live in or invest in crime ridden neighborhoods, ensuring those neighborhoods remain shit holes. This is taken as clear evidence of systemic oppression by the lefties, who then demand more tax payer funded social justice initiatives. The only effect of these programs is, of course, to employ social justice majors and make the community even more attractive to dirt bags. From the leftist perspective, any normal people victimized by the free roaming ferals are small price to pay (and they probably had it coming, being part of the oppressor class and all).

You wrote, “Did not know the court system ran its own electronic monitoring — 130 offenders with beepers on their legs — in addition to 95 more the sheriff controls.” This needs a little clarification. At the time Chris asked me the question, the Court had 130 participants in its Bail Monitoring Program. Defendants may be referred to this program as a condition of bail during their pre-trial period. The purpose of the program is to help ensure that defendants attend all required future court dates and comply with other conditions of bail. Not all participants wear electronic monitoring bracelets—only those that the court has so ordered, usually due to a bail condition that represents a geographic restriction, i.e. “not to be on the 100 block of State Street.” As I type this now, we have 129 participants in BMP, 45 of whom have electronic monitoring bracelets.

Asking for a friend

Mike Huckabee asks: What would a federal judge do if Jim Acosta challenged him in his courtroom, argued and refused to give up the microphone when a bailiff tried to retrieve it?

Unmet needs?

‘Got anything for us?’

MidTown 8:25 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 18 — Officers met with a victim (26-year-old AAM) who reported being approached by two AAMs, one AAF and one WF (possibly all juveniles) as he was waiting for a bus. The victim stated the “juveniles” asked him if he had anything for them. The victim said he referred to them as “kids” which caused the two AAM’s to batter him. The suspects fled. The victim sustained visible injuries, including a chipped tooth.

Someone (could) DID get hurt like this!

11:35 p.m. Nov. 17 — A Fitchburg police officer spotted a Subaru Forrester that was listed as stolen through MPD. The vehicle took off when a stop was initiated. The vehicle ended up crashing into an unoccupied house near Allied Dr, located within the City of Madison. The house sustained heavy damage and the vehicle was totaled. All three occupants were transported to the hospital.

The suspect driver was a 16-year-old AAM, whose injuries were unknown at the time of this entry. A 14-year-old AAF passenger sustained a broken arm. A 14-year-old AAM passenger had a fractured/dislocated hip and will be admitted for surgery. Fitchburg PD took the vehicle for evidence in their investigation and MPD took the crash investigation.

Even MORE school-to-prison at La Follette H.S.

Friday’s Disturbance — 3:44 pm. Nov. 16 — The La Follette High School Educational Resource Officer was outside monitoring students when a suspect (30-year-old AAF) began yelling threats from the street at school staff. The suspect’s daughter (14-year-old AAF) threw a water bottle at a group of students in front of the school and then fled with her mother in a vehicle. Officers performed a traffic stop on the vehicle and while officers attempted to detain the suspects, an additional passenger/suspect (16-year-old AAF) was arrested for interfering. The 30-year-old suspect was conveyed to the Dane County Jail while the teenagers were cited for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Tuesday’s disturbance — 9:55 a.m. Nov. 13 — School Resource Officer (SRO) at La Follette High School asked for additional resources as a disturbance was breaking out in the commons area of the school.